Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Eric Chu/Facebook
THE KMT AND TPP have criticized the Lai administration’s efforts to use a 410 billion NT special budget to provide financial relief for industries affected by the US tariff shocks. The KMT and TPP have criticized the special budget as insufficient, while calling for more money to be spent on relieving industry.
The KMT and TPP calling for more money to be spent on relief funds for industry proves a means of political one-upmanship. This dynamic is far from unheard of in Taiwanese politics.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the KMT and TPP also frequently criticized the DPP’s actions as insufficient in combating the pandemic. The attempt was always to upstage moves by the DPP-controlled central government with measures rolled out by KMT-controlled local governments, such as with regard to funds and incentives to boost spending at a time when society as a whole was impacted.
At the same time, the KMT and TPP have criticized a 100 billion NT subsidy for Taipower. Taipower is Taiwan’s state-run power utility.
The DPP has defended the subsidy as relief to Taipower’s losses, which stood at 420 billion NT last year. However, the KMT has criticized this as wasteful.
Such subsidies allow Taipower to keep electricity prices low, both for general consumers and for industry. The KMT and TPP are likely aiming to cut such subsidies in order that prices rise. If the public comes to blame the Lai administration as responsible for the rise in prices, this would affect the popularity of the Lai administration.
Even so, the KMT and TPP have at the same time sought to attack the Lai administration on the issue of Taiwan’s power grid. The KMT and TPP have pointed to the five large-scale power outages that occurred during the Tsai administration, suggesting that Taiwan has insufficient power. Still, it is unclear as to how Taipower is to maintain a stable power supply with less funding.
As a state-run power utility, Taipower has historically been close to the KMT. Taipower workers and workers in other state-owned enterprises have often been seen as leaning toward the KMT. Yet it proves unusual to see the KMT willing to throw Taipower under the bus in this way.
Indeed, when the KMT pushed for drastic cuts to the government budget, aiming to cut 34% of government spending in what was the largest set of budget cuts in Taiwanese history, this did not occur because there was any demand from the public for fiscal balance. The Taiwanese public generally enjoys the quasi-welfare state that exists in Taiwan, in which the public enjoys the social services provided by the government. Last year also saw a record tax windfall for the government.
Rather, the KMT targeting government spending was a means of undermining institutions they did not control–and as a means of seizing control of institutions. The KMT was very likely also hoping that public anger over the effect on social services from the budget cuts would be blamed on the DPP.
It is to be seen if the KMT’s conflicted stances, then, end up hurting it politically. Certainly, outrage against the KMT’s actions has led to a historically unprecedented series of recalls directed at KMT politicians, though it is far from clear if the recalls will be successful.